The Best of Copyblogger: 2016 Edition

The year of the rollercoaster is nearly finished, and, as we usually do around this time, I wanted to pull together some of my favorite posts for you.

This collection of posts (and a single podcast) is a celebration of the writers who worked hard every week to teach, inspire, and entertain us — and it’s also a bit of a manifesto for what we want 2017 to be.

Our vision for 2017 is:

The year of the individual voice

The year of community

The year of the real, human writer

Here are some of my favorite Copyblogger posts from 2016, starting with just one podcast episode …

The Return of the Blog

Darren and Brian talk about how “business blogging” became “content marketing,” about what we might have lost along the way, and about how to get that back again:Blogging is Back, with Darren Rowse

Paying the bills, bills, bills

Copyblogger has always been a site for writers, and we hold a special place in our hearts for the freelancer — the early pioneers of the “gig economy,” who live on that fascinating edge where stress turns into freedom.

Here’s just a small sampling of posts we ran this year on how to make a better living creating words.

The answer is always in the audience

Darren, in his conversation with Brian, made the point that maybe if we’d called it “Community Marketing” instead of “Content Marketing,” more content creators would have kept their focus in the right place.

I think that’s a wise observation. Copyblogger has always taught the value of being a bit obsessed with your audience — and we’ve always been proud of the smart, thoughtful community that has grown around the blog.

Community isn’t just the relationship between you and the audience … it’s also about the professional ties you create with other writers. Stefanie Flaxman delves into what you need to consider before you publish other voices on your site:Should You Publish Guest Blog Posts on Your Website?

If your content lacks connection, you’ll never build trust. If your content lacks conversion skills, you’ll never make any money. And if your content lacks conviction, it has no soul.

We say “your writing has to be good” — but what does that mean, precisely? A post I turn to again and again to answer that question is Brian Clark’s article on the intersection of meaning and fascination:2 Essential Elements of Irresistible Content

Writers write every day (sometimes) … but what happens when you have no idea what to write about? Stefanie Flaxman is here to help:This Is How You Become a Writer

It’s nearly 2017, and bots are writing content now. What they aren’t doing is writing good content — because it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. Brian Clark expands on that here:How to Make Your Writing Real

Making more of it happen

Craft matters. And creativity matters.

But neither one matters if you don’t get the work done. Here are some resources to help you make that happen.

Ever have trouble starting a new blog post? Or wrapping one up? Or … filling the middle with something that isn’t total blather? Yeah, me too. Here’s Brian Clark’s focused process for how to move past these three dreadful symptoms of a single problem:The 5-Step Process that Solves 3 Painful Writing Problems

Content Marketing blah blah blah

Most of us at Copyblogger hate the term “content marketing.” It’s too vague, it sounds clinical, and it puts the focus in the wrong place (on the content, rather than the community).

But … we also believe in using the language of the audience. And, for better or worse, “content marketing” is what folks call “authoritative creative works like blogs, podcasts, videos, and other useful things, that attract and sustain audience attention and build a case for your business goals.”

And to be honest, ACWLBPVAOUTTAASAAABACFYBG doesn’t really roll off the tongue.

And finally … there’s a trend you might notice if you click through to these posts. That trend will be moving in a different direction in 2017 … but you’ll need to wait for the new year for the announcement.

So … watch this space. 🙂 Have a safe New Year’s Eve, and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Sonia Simone

Sonia Simone was a founding partner of Copyblogger Media. She works with a select handful of clients on business-building content at Remarkable Communication. Several times a year, she also leads a creative writing workshop for content creators, marketers, and business writers.